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Cigarette smoking attenuates acetylcholine (ACh)-induced cutaneous vasodilation in humans, but the underlying mechanisms are unknown. We tested the hypothesis that smokers have impaired nitric oxide (NO)- and cyclooxygenase (COX)-dependent cutaneous vasodilation to ACh infusion. Twelve young smokers, who have smoked more than 5.2 ± 0.7 yr with an average daily consumption of 11.4 ± 1.2 cigarettes, and 12 nonsmokers were tested. Age, body mass index, and resting mean arterial pressure were similar between the groups. Cutaneous vascular conductance (CVC) was evaluated as laser-Doppler flux divided by mean arterial pressure, normalized to maximal CVC (local heating to 43.0°C plus sodium nitroprusside administration). We evaluated the increase in CVC from baseline to peak (CVC_Δpeak) and area under the curve of CVC (CVC_AUC) during a bolus infusion (1 min) of 137.5 μM ACh at four …